Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-08-26
Work. Wages and Cost of Living.

Work, Wages and Cost of Living.
The paper by Mr.. Edward Atkinson in
the August number of the Century Mage
zinc on the cost of living, rate of wages
and profits on capital is an exceedingly
interesting one. Mr.. Atkinson is no doubt
an optimist His views of the labor prob
lem are generally somewhat rose colored;
but in this paper he makes no guesses, nor
does he seem TO jump TO conclusions. lie
gives facts and figures. In his carefully
compiled tables he shows that the wages
of all classes of workmen in the United
States have advanced since 1860, ana that
the better skilled the workmen, the great
er has been the advance. He divides
workmen into four classes. The wages of
the first class were advanced from 50 45 a
day in 1860 to s.. IA in 1885 the wages of
the second class from 81 So to 50 40 of the
third class from 80 to $780, and the
fourth from Sl.01 to Sl,40. The purchas
ing power of the money which the me
chanic and laborer have received has ad-
vanced in far greater ratio than their
wages Mr.. Atkinson shows that the in
creased purchasing power of years
wages of each of the classes since 1865
has been for class one, 10S per cent. for
class two, 80 per cent. ; for class three,
rs per cent. and for class four, 60 per
cent. So that if wages were no higher
to-day than they were % years ago, every
class of workmen would be better off
than they. were then but as we have
seen, men get considerably more for a
days work now than they did then. This
is what Mr. Atkinson calls progress from
poverty.
Now with regard to the earnings of
capital. Is the rich man able to get more
for his money to-day than he did in 1860
What Mr.. Atkinson says about this is
very interesting. From 1S4S to 1860 the
average rate of discount in the open mar
ket of the United States by the corpora
tions enjoying the highest credit was eight
per cent, subject to very considerable
fluctuations. From 1860 to 1869 the civil
war had great effect upon the market,
and money was generally dear. Railway
corporations issued bonds at long dates
at rates of interest from to per cent.
even as high as 10 per cent was paid by
railroad corporations of great strength
and sound credit. Up to 1878 the rate of
interest on the best manufacturing notes
per cent Between 1878 and 1879 the usual
rate was five per cent Since the resto-
ration of the specie standard at the latter
date" says Mr.. Atkinson, down to the
present time the fluctuations in the rate
of discount on the very best commercial
notes have been 3 to per cent. and by
the actual record of broker doing a very
large business, they have averaged 4 per
cent on months paper" At Chicago
the rates of discount during the same
period have been reduced from an average
of 10 per cent and over, to an average of
five per cent or less. con Western farm
mortgages, the change has. been much
greater. Twenty-Five years ago, rates as
high as 25 per cent were paid on mortga
ges on Western land on what has proved
to be excellent security. The rate now
charged is seven per cent and even less"
We see from this that the earning power
of capital has been reduced at least one
half since 1860, and the tendency is to di-
minish it still further In the face of
these undeniabe facts, how can it be said
that the rich are growing richer, and that,
too, at the expense of the poor The
rich of course have the advantage of the
reduction in the prices of the necessaries
of life, but this is not comparatively, so
beneficial to them as it Is to the working
class. The figures show that if one class
is getting rich at the expense of the other
it is the better class of mechanics who are
becoming more independent at the cost of
the capitalists